Culture

Carry Trainspotting at SXSW ’13

Crowd spotting carry options

Festivals and events are awesome for checking out carry. Especially SXSW, as it more or less becomes the center of the world for about 2 weeks, with nearly 500,000 attendees coming from all around the globe to explore the fields of Interactive, Film, Technology, Social Media, Film, Music and much more. If you’ve heard about it, it has either been at SXSW or invented at SXSW. Everyone rocks up with a day’s worth of stuff to trek through the city of Austin during SX, and it’s often creative and interesting folk with some unique tastes… and we want to look at their carry. We covered this in 2012, so we thought it would be fun to do a Carry Trainspotting SXSW 2013 edition as well.

Some quick insights that I stood out to me.

1) The heritage trend thing is still going strong/strongest. Specifically, there were tons and tons more heritage “rucksacks” than I have ever spotted before (meaning floppy backpack, usually made from canvas with two leather or faux-leather straps to keep the lid closed).

2) Overall, Jansport still dominates. There are some other legendary brands like Eastpak that made a strong showing. But when it comes to backpacks, Jansport owns the market.

3) Less “adventure” packs than I’ve ever seen. It seems that people don’t automatically go to REI when they’re looking for a pack anymore. This is a great thing. People looking elsewhere for carry, and discovering legit carry-focused brands.

4) Backpacks win. Messengers, even less than in previous years. I’d estimate that 80% of the carry at SX had two shoulder straps.

GR1 spotted. Guy was Marketing Director for some huge record label, forget which one. Also- this was at the “Mashable House” SX Party, where I met GRUMPY CAT just a few minutes after snapping this shot.

Actual African cheetah fur. Some girl’s grandmother bought it while she was in Africa and brought it back to the US.

Full suit. Sport backpack. Shouldn’t work. Kind of does here for some reason.

Bag made from cowboy boots.

Serious carry.

Foldable tote.

My favorite backpack I spotted during all of SXSW 2013. Worn by a Japanese dude traveling with some bands. He said he purchased the pack as is and that it was based off of a Gregory Pack (not sure if he meant it was made by Gregory or a copied design/pattern). Wish I could’ve captured more detail.

My favorite backpack I spotted during all of SXSW 2013. Worn by a Japanese dude traveling with some bands. He said he purchased the pack as is and that it was based off of a Gregory Pack (not sure if he meant it was made by Gregory or a copied design/pattern). Wish I could’ve captured more detail.

My favorite backpack I spotted during all of SXSW 2013. Worn by a Japanese dude traveling with some bands. He said he purchased the pack as is and that it was based off of a Gregory Pack (not sure if he meant it was made by Gregory or a copied design/pattern). Wish I could’ve captured more detail.

I usually don’t use a case on my iPhone. Except for SXSW, when it is absolutely necessary. I usually just find one the first day and use it throughout. Same thing happened this year. The camo pattern wouldn’t be my first choice, but it still was a nice simple case. This was also Jansport’s official release of “A complete collection of cases, sleeves, folios and bags to protect the gadgets you take everywhere. Available Fall 2013.” A nice sneak peak at what is to come.

“FINE GOLD 999.9 NET WT 1000g” backpack

TMNT branded

Dickies giveaway mini backpacks. The girls loved these.

Filled with bags of “SXSW 2013 Edition” Cool Ranch Doritos. I wish I was joking.

Senior Editor | Industrial Designer

Taylor designs for countless carry brands, across every carry category. He’s contributed to the lost art of manly moustaches, and earned a reputation for reviews that keep our core carry nuts learning.